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Yo, how was Charlotte? Half way through the first episode and it seems like shit. Drop or keep going?

IIRC the seasonal thread decided that you get SoL until episode 7, at which point you get 4 episodes of plot, and then episodes 11 and 12 are really dumb. I would check the seasonal thread for actual opinions, but my impression of it is "Jun Maeda; Key; didn't watch. Thread didn't seem to like it awfully much; feel justified; life is good."

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Holy crap you guys are right, I've watched my share of things but only 1 episode in and Rakudai Kishi indeed has a breath of fresh air feel to it and you just know they played the tropes right.

Ikki x Stella already have some top-notch banter and interactions, right down to their first meeting with Ikki's lolreverse-strip to the classic hard worker untalented vs. (hard worker(!)) talented duel topped off with Stella's reverse-perverted-curiosity and finally a touching "your first order as my slave is to be my roommate" by humble 'ol Ikki, commence fistbump :3

Looking forward to great things,

You won't be disappointed as the standard does not change throughout. Some people found the second last episode hard going but I thought it fit in perfectly with the conclusion after that. Your enthusiasm for it has made me decide to rewatch it from scratch myself again... which must make this the 4th time for me.

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You won't be disappointed as the standard does not change throughout. Some people found the second last episode hard going but I thought it fit in perfectly with the conclusion after that. Your enthusiasm for it has made me decide to rewatch it from scratch myself again... which must make this the 4th time for me.

You know. I really expect him to post another mega post about his reflection on the show like he did for Zero no Tsukaima. It may not be nearly as epic, but I think it has similar impact and rises in the series. As for the penultimate episode, I fully agree. The was it was depicted was really nice for the setting and mood it was trying to portray.

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I watched Charlotte after like 6 months of anime hiatus, so I had a full anime HP bar and was able to thoroughly enjoy all of its recycled JunMaeda-ness in all of their glory

~~
Summary of Ep. 2 Rakudai

Spoiler

Love how quickly these two are progressing, Stella already making her move and giving Ikki a body wash 2 episodes in, unlike a certain Zero no Tsukaima take fking 4 seasons for the Louise x Saito, bless their souls, to get out of that horrific one-step-forward-two-steps-back shithole relationship progression.

Though, I'm hoping Stella can just admit she has the hots for Ikki soon instead of relying on that "I'm your servant" excuse c'mon c'mon c'mon!@#

~~
That's all for today, will probably watch 2-3 eps. a day and comment as necessary.

e: damn, speaking of zero no tsukaima, i cant believe abyssal remembers that xD. I think I'm too old now to put out a quality misc. thoughts/ramblings that's on par with that one, but I'll try

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Yo, how was Charlotte? Half way through the first episode and it seems like shit. Drop or keep going?

It's shit.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Quick summary: 6 episodes of near meaningless SoL bullshit; 4 episodes of intense melodrama that makes you want to stick forks in your eyeballs; 2 final episodes revolving around even more pointless shit no one cares about because the main plot already went off the rails 6 episodes ago, including a really dumb tacked on romantic subplot, because of course it has to have romance, even if it doesn't fit at all in the story.

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Just finished Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, and.... hmm... On the one hand, I like the premise as well as the overall story. On the other hand, the pacing is weird, and it just kind of cuts off. In other words, a typical LN adaptation.

I think I may follow LiquidShu's lead and go with Ergo Proxy next.

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Just keeps getting better and better, Ep. 3 was actually pretty tense for a fodder-villain-of-the-week episode given how them baddies were about to execute women & children along with their little Stella strip ultimatum (thank you, fodder villains, for that btw )

Ep 4 was just AWESOME, yes yes there was that one battle b/w Ikki and Kirihara and it got pretty grim for a bit before Stella cheerleader-no-jutsu'd Ikki to victory, but nevermind that, Ikki x Stella is official!!!!!@$#%$&^& HUZZAH

Spoiler

Some might say falling in love/confession within 4 episodes is too fast, but eh, it should've been evident from episode 1 that these two have waaay better chemistry then many other ships out there

Episode 5 was such a tease. I legit got frustrated as hell at their lovely 2 weeks (20 minutes) of relationship stagnation but it's all worth in the end when they finally miscommunication-explode on each other and blurt out in unison their desire to officially kiss

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OK, I'm now on episode 11 of GakkouGurashi!. I take back the comment about wanting something more serious after watching a few episodes of this.

Spoiler

Holy fucking shit stick, episode 10 man, episode 10. Holy fucking shit stick. This show is freakin' awesome, this had to be the best episode by far. I felt fear, sadness, anxiety, curiosity, but no happiness, at all. I legitimately felt scared this episode. The music was fucking creepy, Kurumi was in such despair that I felt it, and Megu-nee writing while having blood drip down her mouth, HOLY SHIT. Not to mention Taroumaru... man I loved him. Holy fucking shit stick.

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~~
Finished the Sword Eater arc for Rakudai Kishi no Calvary. This is where I stop all the hype & enthusiasm spam train and just say "it was good"; Ayatsuji's story with the swordsmanship & her pride was aight, and Kurashiki was a cool enough villain. Didn't expect that it would go on for 3 episodes though.

Hope the last 4 episodes can WOW me like the first 4 did

~~

e: yup, they delivered. Damn, it's been a while since I felt this good finishing an anime. Really, they just did everything RIGHT. And uhhh it's 2AM for me so good nite

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Now that the special edition physical release is out, it's finally time to watch season 2 of Love Live!, but when I started it up I was horribly confused because 1) it was dubbed, and 2) I couldn't remember all the characters clearly and instantly. So I decided to go back and re-watch season 1 first, to refresh memories and recall whether I should be watching it subbed or dubbed (the answer is subbed, by the way, because I don't think there even was a dub of season 1, and changing character voices partway through is obviously not allowed).

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Now that the special edition physical release is out, it's finally time to watch season 2 of Love Live!, but when I started it up I was horribly confused because 1) it was dubbed, and 2) I couldn't remember all the characters clearly and instantly. So I decided to go back and re-watch season 1 first, to refresh memories and recall whether I should be watching it subbed or dubbed (the answer is subbed, by the way, because I don't think there even was a dub of season 1, and changing character voices partway through is obviously not allowed).

I was not aware there was a dub to S2, S1's dub just came out a couple months ago afaik, since it did not come with the original EN release.

I'm a bit biased because I generally hate dubs, but to me, there's no sense in watching an idol anime with English dub, when they sing in Japanese.

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I was not aware there was a dub to S2, S1's dub just came out a couple months ago afaik, since it did not come with the original EN release.

I'm a bit biased because I generally hate dubs, but to me, there's no sense in watching an idol anime with English dub, when they sing in Japanese.

I generally like dubs - even though I read fast, with subtitles I still have a tendency to spend a lot of time looking at the subtitle text rather than the animation (I don't know why - I'll catch myself reading the same text multiple times... and I can't seem to break the habit). Anime English dub quality is pretty consistently good for the last few years, as well. I think the anime fandom has something of a bias against dubs mostly because there were so many terrible dubs a decade back that fans have a tendency to not even try newer ones, and then older fans indoctrinate that bias into new ones who wouldn't know any better by using the "I hate dubs" line.

Now, don't get me wrong - it's not hard to run afoul of a bad dub, especially if you're watching something a little older, so I empathize with the desire to just avoid that problem entirely by never watching dubs. And your point about the singing being in Japanese makes a lot of sense. For what it's worth, this angle did bother me a little bit at times when I was watching K-On!, but ultimately it must not have made much of a difference since I'm still crazy about that show.

In this case, all that said, I'm definitely going to watch the sub, but really just because I'm used to the Japanese character voices from season 1 and changing mid-stream is just weird. Also, Kotori's voice is so cute it should be classified as a deadly weapon.

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Was looking through my backlog for my next show and picked Fate/Stay Night. Made it through the first half of ep.0 and will finish it tonight then ep.1 right after. The artwork and animation is gorgeous, the art and what not in Zero was good but I don't remember it being this good.

Already love Tousaka

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where people were raving about Shinsekai Yori, I felt obliged to watch this through.

I can see why people were raving about it since the production quality and execution is very good. However I think there's a tendency to overrate shows (in my opinion) that are dark, horrific, nasty, unpleasant, shocking, disturbing... etc. but that just doesn't resonate with me. This show started out dark and just remained dark throughout the whole thing. There wasn't much in the way of emotional journey besides remaining dark from start to end and, I hate to say it, but it was mostly predictable, right up to the conclusion, even if the writing and execution was very good 8/10. Still rates well overall though, but not in my top 5. I certainly wouldn't want to sit through it again.

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where people were raving about Shinsekai Yori, I felt obliged to watch this through.

I can see why people were raving about it since the production quality and execution is very good. However I think there's a tendency to overrate shows (in my opinion) that are dark, horrific, nasty, unpleasant, shocking, disturbing... etc. but that just doesn't resonate with me. This show started out dark and just remained dark throughout the whole thing. There wasn't much in the way of emotional journey besides remaining dark from start to end and, I hate to say it, but it was mostly predictable, right up to the conclusion, even if the writing and execution was very good 8/10. Still rates well overall though, but not in my top 5. I certainly wouldn't want to sit through it again.

I've picked up and put down Shinsekai Yori twice now, the last time at about 10 episodes through. Like you said, the production values and the execution are excellent, and that's why I go back to it (and still want to go back to it again and finish, or at least make some progress), but the dark tone makes me have a lot of trouble keeping with it. I get easily distracted by anything a little bit brighter - clearly my mind's way of telling me that it doesn't want to be watching the show. I agree with pretty much everything you said.

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I've picked up and put down Shinsekai Yori twice now, the last time at about 10 episodes through. Like you said, the production values and the execution are excellent, and that's why I go back to it (and still want to go back to it again and finish, or at least make some progress), but the dark tone makes me have a lot of trouble keeping with it. I get easily distracted by anything a little bit brighter - clearly my mind's way of telling me that it doesn't want to be watching the show. I agree with pretty much everything you said.

The execution and plot do it for me. It fully felt like the show thought every last detail through from start to finish, which makes sense because it was a book, but it also didn't compromise on the rest of the values as well. That dark perspective actually comes from what I believe was HG Well's The Time Machine if I'm not mistaken(it was some notable work of that era), from which Shin Sekai Yori novel was almost a rehash of.

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The execution and plot do it for me. It fully felt like the show thought every last detail through from start to finish, which makes sense because it was a book, but it also didn't compromise on the rest of the values as well. That dark perspective actually comes from what I believe was HG Well's The Time Machine if I'm not mistaken(it was some notable work of that era), from which Shin Sekai Yori novel was almost a rehash of.

I'm not disagreeing with you at all on that. As a journey it was very well executed. My problem is... it's not the sort of journey I enjoy.

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I'm not disagreeing with you at all on that. As a journey it was very well executed. My problem is... it's not the sort of journey I enjoy.

But in a way, isn't it like real life? *insert mind blown gif*

To be honest I loved the message of Shinsekai Yori even more than it's execution. It certainly is a dark tale, but the themes are so well explored that i couldn't help but be mesmerized by the end. You watch these characters grow in a sheltered environment snd then break out of their shell, discovering humanity's ugly side, and then that ending that's so bittersweet and twisted. It kinda felt like everything the show did was perfect for the message they wanted to deliver and that's probably why I loved it so much.

If you want to try another show with a similar "humanity is shit" kind of vibe, I recommend Ima soko ni iru, boku.

Be warned though, it's basically a depression fest through and through. The show has a very clear message, and it's all about whether or not you can stomach through it. I personally really enjoyed it and cried a few times.

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If you want to try another show with a similar "humanity is shit" kind of vibe, I recommend Ima soko ni iru, boku.

Be warned though, it's basically a depression fest through and through. The show has a very clear message, and it's all about whether or not you can stomach through it. I personally really enjoyed it and cried a few times.

That's precisely what I don't want to experience, so thanks for the warning. Real life is bad enough, and I'm too old to experience what amounts to aggravated teenage angst all over again as though it's bringing me some kind of enlightenment any more (I felt different 30 years ago). Anime is where I go to escape these days, not to remind me of what I hate about the real world.